Buy with Leopard installed or update myself?

Hi all,

I have been planning a new iMac purchase for a few months and have decided to wait until Leopard comes out. I was planning on waiting until the announcement was made and then hitting the Apple store that day. I talked to someone at my local Apple store today and they told me that when Leopard is released all of the iMacs in the store will have Tiger installed but will include the Leopard disc which I would need to install myself. They said I could wait a few additional weeks after the release date to purchase the iMac with Leopard already installed.

Question is: Is there any downside to doing the upgrade myself rather than buying the OSX with the fresh install? I have done Operating System upgrades on Windows machines and notice a lot of crap left on the machine after the update. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike

Not sure why the Apple Store employee told you that you would have to upgrade yourself. When Tiger came out, most, if not all, of the machines on display had Tiger on them and all of the machines available for purchase had Tiger on them. I don't see why the same wouldn't be the case with Leopard's release.

If what you heard turns out to be true, then you really have nothing to worry about. Just fire up your iMac to make sure it works, then throw in the Leopard disc and do an Erase & Install since you don't have to backup anything.

Thanks for the response Kash. He said they would have to clear out their stock of Tiger iMacs before they received the ones with Leopard loaded on them. I'm assuming the ones on the floor would have Leopard installed on the release date so people can check them out, be he said it could take up to two weeks to clear out their stock before getting more.

I didn't know that there was an option to erase and install when doing the upgrade. That might be the best bet for me to ensure that the drive doesn't have a bunch of extra data on it.

Thanks,
Mike

Apple definitely doesn't worry about clearing out old stock before releasing new stuff. When the new iMacs came out, all of the old ones were pulled from display and from the back and sent back to Apple. The same for the old iPods when the new ones were released. No way Apple is going to want people to buy out the old Tiger machines before selling ones with Leopard. The Apple Stores will pull all the Tiger machines and put out new Leopard machines, both on display and available to purchase.

When Apple announces a new product, with the exception of the iPhone and iPod Touch, they have all been available the same day in the Apple Store. So when Leopard is launched, you should be able to just walk in and buy a machine with it pre-installed. I know that I'll be going in and getting my Family Pack on launch day.

Thats what i'll hope for. This guy seemed pretty confident that the disc would be in there along with Tiger, but i'm hoping he's wrong.

Apple Store employees have been known to pull things out of their asses, so don't take everything they say at face value. ;P

I had an experience with Apple Store employees few weeks ago..

I had a question about a software and four employees had either no idea or
opposite answers like Yes/No.

It was about Adobe CS3 upgrade.. "which package to buy?"
I understand if they don't know about the "software" but it was funny that
they started to argue/debate each other infront of a customer..

But then again, generally, they are nice and helpful...

I'm hoping to walk out with a Leopard machine too. Although I do have to wait a few days since I'll be traveling on the prospective release date.

Whats the prospective release date?

Based on previous releases and industry speculation, we're looking at a October 26 release date.

Aw man I was hoping it would be out next week!

I was hoping it would be out tomorrow...get it, 10/5...10.5 ;P

Yeah I read that also and got excited, but after seeing that it was a Friday I gave up hope. I've been a long-time Apple notebook user and decided I was going to purchase my first Apple desktop. Guess my Apple II will have to go in the garage . Waited for the April release of Leopard and was disappointed to see it get pushed back. Guess a few weeks more won't hurt.

Mike

What's wrong with it being a Friday? The 26th is a Friday. Tiger was released on a Friday, as was Panther (Jaguar was close, it was released on a Saturday).

Nothing wrong with it being a Friday . I just thought that most Apple products were released on weekdays. Crossing my fingers for tomorrow.

trojanmike said:

Nothing wrong with it being a Friday . I just thought that most Apple products were released on weekdays. Crossing my fingers for tomorrow.

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure Fridays are still considered weekdays...

RKRick said:

I'm pretty sure Fridays are still considered weekdays...

Click to expand...

I don't have classes on Friday, so I sort of consider it as part of my three day weekend ;P

Kash said:

I don't have classes on Friday, so I sort of consider it as part of my three day weekend ;P

Click to expand...

Ditto

I'm planning on being in London on the 27th anyway for MacLiveExpo... a short trip to the Apple Store wouldn't kill me (yeah, I could probably buy it at the Expo, but being so close to the largest Apple store and not going?!)

Anyway, back to the original topic; that's what happened with me and iLife 08. I ordered my machine a few days before the announcement (didn't have much choice), and was told it could be up to 3 weeks until they got some new stock... iLife 08 is announced and a couple days later I have my Mac with iLife 06 installed, but with an iLife 08 disc in with the recovery discs.